CROSS WESTCHESTER; Red State or Blue, An Appeal to Think Green

By Debra West

Published: May 28, 2006

IF the crowd at the Jacob Burns Film Center last Monday was any indication, Al Gore's documentary crusade to save the planet may start a national debate on global warming.

''An Inconvenient Truth,'' shown in a preview, segued to a discussion on how to reduce greenhouse gases and -- more important, some said -- how to get more people to see the movie so they, too, could talk about reducing greenhouse gases.

Stephen Apkon, founder and executive director of the film center in Pleasantville, said the film was so important that he planned to screen it free of charge for any Westchester high school class.

''I want to arrange for every student in Westchester County who wants to see the film, to be able to see it,'' Mr. Apkon said.

Persuasive as the work seeks to be, however, at the screening it preached mostly to the converted. One solidly green audience member, Paul Gallay of the Westchester Land Trust, encouraged his fellow viewers to reach across the political aisle when the movie opens in theaters (May 24 in Manhattan and June 2 at the Burns).

''For every person you get to see this movie from one political party, get two from other one,'' Mr. Gallay said. ''How powerful this will be depends on how bipartisan the audience is.''

The film's dire predictions of ice caps melting, seas swelling and temperatures rising require a united, even militant, response rather than an individual one, said another viewer, Charles Cutietta-Olson, treasurer of Wespac Foundation, a network of local activist groups.

''As much as we want to change our own behavior,'' Mr. Cutietta-Olson said, ''we have to have political power. We have to get out in the streets.''

One man, who identified himself only as a teacher, was less hopeful about the difference one individual or even one nation could make.

''I hate to pour water on your party,'' he said, and went on to note that despite his involvement in environmental causes for the last 30 years, the world's population had doubled and the threats to planetary health had only increased.

Hawking for a Cause

Richele Ford walked the grounds of Green Chimneys school, farm and wildlife rehabilitation center last weekend with a six-inch screech owl named Sweetie tethered to her wrist. Ms. Ford was an exhibitor at the school's annual Birds of Prey Day, but Sweetie is a ''bird of prey'' in name only at this point. With one ear missing and one big green eye blinded ever since a collision with a car, Sweetie has become more pet than hunter. She lives in Albany with Ms. Ford rather than in the wild, where she would be unlikely to catch a meal.

''She would survive with one eye,'' said Ms. Ford, a falconer who came to discuss her birds with the 2,500 participating nature lovers. ''But because her hearing is damaged she can't hunt.''

Green Chimneys, based in Brewster, is a nonprofit social services agency with programs that serve 3,500 children a year in the metropolitan area.

But it is best known for its Brewster farm, which houses a residential treatment center for troubled children. The school uses farm animals to teach students about love, affection and loyalty -- qualities that luckier children learn at home. Birds of Prey Day is Green Chimneys' biggest fund-raiser; this year it took in more than $50,000.

The actors Matthew Modine and William Baldwin were on hand to release a rehabilitated red-tailed hawk (it, too, had been struck by a car), and the musician Fiona Apple came to name the two horses she had donated: Apple and Hi-Fi. But the stars of the day were of course the birds themselves -- hawks, falcons and owls -- and the falconers who train them to return with the small game they hunt down.

''The rabbit wins more often than the birds do,'' said Ms. Ford, a laboratory technician by trade. ''The rabbit knows the environment and will run down a hole to get away. The bird will get voles and mice on the side. It's their snack food.''

But as might be expected from a sport in which wild birds are trained to kill for their masters but not eat what they have caught, some of the falconers exhibiting their birds were not as open to questions as Ms. Ford.

When asked what a red-tailed hawk's name was, one falconer with a waist-length ponytail and a leather vest, who declined to give his own name, responded: ''Don't name them. Why bother? Turn them loose and three days later they're wild again.''

Handywomen at Work

Sometimes the unexpected sells. Two women have opened a handyman business in Mount Kisco that promises to do what the big guys often won't: take on small- and medium-size home repairs for an hourly wage.

''We return our phone calls, we show up on time and we don't leave a mess,'' said Margie Nugent, an owner of Best Kept Home, which opened last month. ''We have a little different perspective on it.''

Ms. Nugent's expertise is in design, and her partner, Michele Campbell, used to work as a construction project manager. The two aren't planning to do the repairs themselves. For that, they have a crew trained in carpentry, painting, plumbing, electricity and, presumably, neatness.

But right now it's their Web site, BestKeptHome.com, that is under construction.

Photo: The actors William Baldwin, left, and Matthew Modine release a red-tailed hawk at the Birds of Prey day. (Photo by Andrea Mohin/The New York Times)